I GENUINELY THOUGHT THIS WAS OUT THERE I'M SO SORRY YOU GUYS

Opal's Pov

Thanksgiving week seemed to drag on and go by fast as people arrived and more cooking and cleaning needed to be done. I had just barely finished smoothing out my sweater as the majority of our guests started arriving.

"Opal, are you sure we have enough plates?" My mom asked. I looked at the three tables we had set up in our crowded dining room.

"God, I hope so." I did a quick mental tally in my head. "There should be nineteen people counting babies." Mom nodded. So we'll need eighteen seats."  She wandered off into the kitchen and briefly wondered if she was counting either Steven or Centi as needing a seat.

Finally, everyone seemed to be pulling themselves together at the tables I smiled as I looked over everyone. Sardonyx placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled as she passed me on her way to sit down next to Sugilite. I noticed my reserved seat on the other side of her and smiled Then, I noticed another empty seat beside Sardonyx.

"Mom, we have an empty seat," I reminded my mom. She simply smiled.

"I think it'll be filled in a moment." Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Everyone looked at the door, wondering who could possibly be at the door.

I made my way over to the door and hardly even recognized the blonde girl wearing sunglasses in front of me.

"Alex?"

Lapis's Pov

I hate Thanksgiving.

I've just never really seen the point of it. We didn't go out to see family, it was always just the four of us sitting silently around a table.

Last year was different.

And in its own way, this year was too.

This year, there were three new people at our table. Malachite, Sapphire, and my aunt. It was mostly them who did the talking. My mother was exhausted and neither Tigereye or Jasper wanted to be there. I sighed, thinking about how Red always had big family gatherings because of the size of his family.

Red said that as of the past year or so, his oldest sister hadn't been coming to family gatherings because of animosity between her and their parents, but this year she had mentioned the possibility of her going to Thanksgiving.

I thought about Mangano having dinner with her parents and Sleepy Lavender Opal. God, how I missed hanging out with her. I sighed. She probably wanted nothing to do with me.

It's not that I blamed her, I completely ditched her. But I still felt like if she'd been in my shoes, things would have turned out the same.

"Lapis Ophelia." I looked up at my mother. "It's your turn to say thanks."

"Oh." I looked back down at my plate. "I guess I'm thankful for my friends." And I was. With the exception of Hess, my friends finally understood ho I wanted to be.

I wanted to be free.

Opal's Pov

And just like that, we were on the floor.

It was Sardonyx who had joined the hug first. She'd nearly screamed when she saw our friend and ran to hug her. Then Sugilite. The four of us sank to the floor in a messy pile of tears and laughter.

"I can't believe you're back!" I exclaimed.

"Just flew in this morning.  I'm here all weekend." We all stood up and Sardonyx started asking a million questions, all of which Alex seemed to be able to answer. I only managed to grab bits and pieces from the exchange, mostly about how Alex had bleached her hair. I could tell that Sardonyx was more excited than anyone else to have Alex back.

It was like a dream. My whole family was finally here, in one place. And the Thanksgiving setting made everything perfect.

I couldn't have wished for better.

(A/N) Jesus Christ whoops